Yolo County Biographies
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
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John Davenport Wood
J. D. Wood, of Capay valley, was born in Nashville, Ill., December 24, 1828.
When he was eight years old the family moved to Green county, Mo., where he made
his home for about seventeen years. Then, at the age of twenty-five years, he
went to Santa Fe as a teamster with Keith and Livingston, the celebrated
freighters. The far west pleased him and on his return home he made
arrangements for removal to California. A portion of his journey across the
plains was made in company with the survey party of General John C. Fremont and
Kit Carson. The great Pathfinder and the equally great scout were again hunting
and marking roads across the American continent�this being Fremont�s fifth and
last labor in the west, and the last time he ever came over the ground made
memorable as his work by an explorer.
The ox train was under the command of Colonel Hagen, afterwards of Sonoma, and
consisted of twenty-three wagons, ninety-six persons and eleven hundred head of
cattle. They traveled along the old beaten way via Fort Laramie, Chimney Rock,
Sweetwater, North Platte, Green River, Sinks of the Humboldt, and after being
six months on the road, their trip ended at Petaluma, Cal. Notwithstanding
their large string of cattle they had few losses except from their stock getting
sore feet, which seemed to be epidemic in the band. They successfully ran the
gauntlet of hostile Indians except in one instance, when a big armed band
appeared and demanded the surrender of one of the white men whom they accused of
having shot a squaw. The fellow was guilty as charged, and he was given up to
the Indians who put him to death, and no further molested the train.
Mr. Wood�s sphere of activity during the next dozen years was in the vicinity of
Mt. Shasta, Eureka Flat, Diamond Springs and the mining camps of that portion of
the state. He was a worker and his industry in those well-paid times brought
him good wages, consequently he was always �flush� and no hardships other than
the hardship of hard work. A part of his occupation was hunting wild game in
the great forests of that time and place. Animal pelts were well worth seeking
and his good rifle and traps brought him much profit. He cruised Humboldt and
Mendocino counties, and during the twelve years he slaughtered numerous bears,
panthers, foxes, deer and smaller game. He finally settled on his present home
place of one hundred and thirty-four acres in Capay valley and has taken to the
life of the quiet rancher. His marriage united him to Miss Malinda S.
Alexander, whose parents came across the plains in 1857. The children of this
union are Cyrus V. and John C.
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source: �History of Yolo County, California� by Tom Gregory. Published by the
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 449 � 450.